Four members of an alleged body-snatching ring said to have stolen the bones of the BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke and sold them for transplants are facing a string of criminal charges, it was reported yesterday.

The New York Post said former dentist Michael Mastromarino and embalmer Joseph Nicelli have been indicted by a grand jury on more than 100 counts including forgery, fraud and grand larceny.

Two other men have also been charged, the newspaper said.

The ring is alleged to have taken the body parts of more than 1,000 corpses from funeral parlours in New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, stripping them of tissues, bones and organs.

Then, it is claimed, they sold what they had taken for a profit, with Dr Mastromarino's company, New York-based Biomedical Tissue Services, allegedly shipping parts to hospitals.

In December, it was reported that the veteran broadcaster, who presented BBC Radio 4's Letter From America for more than half a century, was among the alleged victims. He died, aged 95, in New York in March 2004 from lung cancer that spread to his bones.

The New York Post said the grand jury had been hearing evidence since November, when three bodies were exhumed from a cemetery in the suburb of Queens.

Investigators found that half the bones of one 82-year-old woman were missing and had been replaced with plastic plumbing pipes, according to the newspaper.

A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office, which has been investigating the allegations, would not confirm the report.

Dr Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, has said his client denies the charges.

Earlier this week he told the New York Daily News the 44-year-old recognised that an indictment was possible.

"He maintains his innocence and vows that at the conclusion, he will re-establish himself as a premier tissue procurement agent," Mr Gallucci said.